Tomato Plants Show Significant Damage

It wasn't quite as cold last night/this morning, but it did get below freezing again. The low was 30.1 at Pierce College at 6:30 this morning.

The plant damage was obvious on all the front yard tomato plants. Even if I pull them I don't plan on doing so until the ground is more dry – and we have two more storms headed our way.

All the front yard plants have a black tinge near the top of the plants and have sagged significantly since a few days ago. If these plants aren't dead, they're close enough that any fruits to come won't be something to look forward in anticipation.

Right now we're at 11,155 for the year, but we're quite likely to find some matured tomatoes as we take out the plants.

Temperatures Below Freezing Last Night...

Today's harvest: Mong and a back yard Husky Cherry Red for 2 tomatoes.

After Monday's rain, a serious cold front came in behind it. My wife and I went to our computer user group's board meeting that night in Marina Del Rey. When we came back there was already frost on my car's back window.

At 11:00 PM last night it was already down to 33.3 degrees at Pierce College, a mile away. It got to freezing at 11:50, rose very slightly and dipped below freezing at 1:00 AM. The low was 27.0 degrees at 7:10 AM this morning. It got above freezing (32.1 degrees) at 8:00 this morning.

The temperature was below freezing for nearly seven hours and near freezing for quite a while. The weather report we heard last night indicated that tonight would be even colder. We'll see about that.

The tomatoes in today's harvest were picked on Sunday and left to mature on a window sill. They're now mature.

There's frost on the tomato plants this morning. There will certainly be damage to all of them but whether it's fatal hasn't been determined. When the damage is bad enough the plants will turn black, but that hasn't happened – yet.

This may be it for the 2009 harvest...

Tomatoes In The News

Here's the latest installment of Tomatoes In The News...

MarthaStewart.Com – Outdoor Lighting: Hanging Trees

ThePacker.Com – Study Pits Bacteria Against Salmonella In Tomatoes

Kitsap Sun (WA) – Chris Smith | Rating My 2009 Tomato Crops

Garden Center Magazine – How To Prevent Tomato Seedling Diseases

Harvested Over 1100 Snow White(2) Tomatoes!

Let's catch up on the tomato harvest...

On Wednesday no harvest was done.

Thursday we had 3 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 2 Babywine, 2 Black Cherry, Snow White(2), Snow White(1) and Garden Peach for a total of 10 tomatoes.

No harvest was done on Friday. The temperature was just above freezing at daybreak. There was a very light frost on the cars. It got down to 32.1 degrees at 5:50 AM at Pierce College. Too cold to bother with the harvest!

Saturday we harvested 15 Snow White(2), Mong, Garden Peach, a back yard Husky Cherry Red and White Currant for a total of 19 tomatoes.

Sunday we harvested 2 Snow White(2) tomatoes.

Today no harvest was done because it was raining.

We've now harvested over 1100 Snow White(2) tomatoes (1110)! There's actually several hundred new tomatoes on this plant but I doubt many of them will get ripe. If the temperature drops below freezing for any length of time we'll lose the rest of the crop on this plant. Nevertheless we'll be happy for what we get between now and then.

Our Manchester Terrier has been picking off the remaining White Zebra and Green Zebra tomatoes. When we can we'll pull these plants from the ground.